Many doctors, especially general practitioners(GPs) are cheating patients with the incorporation of traditional and complimentary medicine (TCM) into their practices. It is wrong ethically and legally from MMC’s point of view. I just saw a Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patient from a district in Johor who has been suffering from RA for atleast 7 years. For the last 2 years, she has been seeing a clinic near her house, which is run by 2 MBBS doctors ( the patient quoted this). However, these doctors are also practicing TCM. The patient’s blood is taken on every visit and even her saliva is taken to send to India for development of specific “drug” for her disease!! None of these results were ever informed to her despite requesting for it (which is obviously against the Private Healthcare Facility Act). I saw some of the treatment that was given to her and I noticed that except for 1 drug, the rest are traditional medicine. The drug that I can recognize is Prednisolone! The clinic also refused to tell her the names of the medications. AND you know how much they charge her for every visit? A whooping RM 500-1000/visit, so much so, she now owes the clinic more then RM 1000!! This is what I call daylight robbery! The patient’s disease has progressed tremendously to the extent that her joints are severely damaged now.

Then I saw another patient who has been suffering from Psoriasis for many years. He saw this doctor in his hometown who offered him Ozone therapy which the doctor claim can cure his psoriasis!! This patient was also given Prednisolone!! I know many doctors who are practicing Ozone and chelating therapy. Some of these doctors are claiming that they can cure your ischemic heart disease (confirmed stenosis by angiogram) with this form of treatments. Mind you that these treatments are expensive and not regulated by the government unlike doctor’s charges. The therapy can cause RM 1000-2000/session and the patient will need about 10-20 sessions depending on their disease. Infact, I had a GP who even promoted this directly to me. I just laughed at him! I asked for evidence and the only evidence he could give is that the patient’s symptoms have improved! NO repeat angiogram evidence! Everyone in medical field will know of placebo effect!

MMC has issued a warning last year about doctors practicing complementary medicine, especially ozone and chelation therapy . Actions can be taken against these doctors including revoking their license to practice if they are found promoting TCM by claiming that it can cure the patient’s disease. The patient’s are vulnerable to whatever the doctor says, as patients trust doctors will always do their best for them. Unfortunately, I am sorry to say that doctors are becoming the best robbers and conman in this country with the poor enforcement of law.

The other money-making business that doctors are flooding into is aesthetic medicine. Even though aesthetic medicine is recognized as a branch of medicine and is allowed to be practiced by medical councils around the world, it has to be done properly. At the moment, there is no guideline in Malaysia on how an aesthetic physician is going to be recognized. MOH did issue a guideline in 2008 on the practice of aesthetic medicine but no concrete registration was implemented. Today’s Star reported that soon, all aesthetic medicine practitioners will be required to be registered and show proof of their training n . So, from now onwards you can’t claim yourself as an aesthetic medicine practitioner without proper training. I know it is a money making business as a glorified beautician but also remember the high litigation rate involved.

2 comments on “Desperate Doctors”

Hi, I can truly attest to this. My father started to have resting tremor a couple of years back and we noticed that he was walking rather slowly. I suspected that it was Parkinson’s and he went to a GP with proper MBBS qualification to have it checked out. He duly took the prescribed medication (a huge bottle of clear solution) for a couple of weeks. When I came home (I was working as a clinical pharmacist in a district hospital at that time), I was shocked to see that he was prescribed some sort of homeopathic medication. The instruction on the label said,”Swirl this clockwise 3 times and anticlockwise 4 times”, or something to that effect. The name of the ‘medicine’ was not stated on the label (which is against the Poison Regulation 1952). I promptly took him to a government clinic, from which he was referred to HUKM and started on pramipexole. He has been under their care ever since.